AN AMERICAN pensioner set to be deported from the country has vowed to stay by his dead wife’s Birmingham graveside, even if it means committing suicide.

AN AMERICAN pensioner set to be deported from the country has vowed to stay by his dead wife’s Birmingham graveside, even if it means committing suicide.

Eugene Sands has been given 90 days to leave the UK after overstaying a visa by more than three years.

He came to the UK in 2003 after promising his wife of 42 years, Iris, that he would bury her next to her parents at Robin Hood Cemetery, in Shirley, and never leave her side.

The 76-year-old retired cop insists he will not quit Britain and abandon his wife’s dying wish despite appearing to be heading for defeat in his three-year battle.

He is refusing to return to America to try to obtain a new visa as he has been told that it is unlikely he will be given the right to stay permanently in Britain and would not be able to afford to fly back.

“If they come for me, I’ll do whatever it takes to stay here and if that means taking my own life, then so be it,” said Mr Sands.

“I’ve been fighting for three years to stay here and I’m not going to give up. Me and my wife only ever spent three nights apart since the day we met and I’m not going to abandon her now.

“I’m not costing the country anything because I can’t claim benefits so I don’t see why I shouldn’t be able to stay.”

Mr Sands has lodged an appeal against the latest decision but will be made to leave the country by October 11 if he fails.

He is living on an American state pension which he uses to pay for a rented room in Stoney Lane, Yardley.

The daughter of shopkeepers, Mrs Sands was born in Warstock in 1927 and left to work in America in the late 1950s where she met her future husband while she was working as a regional manager for a jeweller in Massachusetts and Mr Sands was managing a supermarket after leaving the police.

After travelling America with work, the couple moved to Florida in the early 1980s and later retired.

Mrs Sands died of a heart attack while in surgery to replace a hip in August 2003 and her body was flown back to Birmingham.

The couple did not have any children and Mr Sands said he had not seen his two brothers for more than 50 years.

He added: “Life isn’t easy over here.

“I have very little money which I use for food and to pay for taxis to the cemetery three or four times a week, but I have nothing to go back for.”

John Hemming MP (Lib Dem, Yardley) has been written to Immigration Minister and MP for Hodge Hill Liam Byrne to highlight Mr Sands’ case.

Mr Hemming said: “It’s no good putting more hurdles in the way of this man to jump over like sending him back to America to get a visa. What I’m calling for them to do is to have some compassion.”